Foxglove

 

Pretty in pink - foxglove

At the bottom of the seismic trail there is a foxglove that has been blooming since August - at least. Here it is almost November and it is still blooming. These days everything else has stopped blooming and all the plants have mostly dried up and turned brown. But not the foxglove - it's still there and bright pink while all around it the world is brown.

These days the pond is completely full of water and the dogs had a good swim. I also noticed that there are still lots of lingonberries and the doggies and I ate our fill.

Patrick

October Sunshine

 

It has remained warm, but at least it has also been sunny. I took the dogs up Pyramid a couple of times and did not even need to wear a jacket. Just above the south bowl I found a perch out of the wind, and just sat for a while on the moss enjoying the view. I think it was around 50 degrees and the sunshine felt great. There are still lots of blue and crow berries and the doggies sniffed around and snuffled them up. Red, in particular, likes to snuffle up the berries.

Patrick

One day we ran into a team of SEALs

Bode takes in the view from our perch

Playing with the Dynamic Range

 

The other day I was taking pictures and the sky was too bright and burnt out and when I tried darken it with exposure compensation then the foreground got too dark. Back home I read a bit on how to fix this and decided to experiment with the dynamic range settings on my camera. Basically you can use these settings to have the camera try and put details in the over and under-exposed parts of the image.

So off I went to Abercrombie (I tried it up on the mountain too) to do some experimenting. I tried doing the sunstars and was hoping the dynamic range settings would allow me to get details in the dark areas. In the park I was super happy with the results. I was setting the dynamic range super high and it looked pretty good on my small camera screen. But then I got home and looked at the pictures on my big computer screen. The high dynamic range images all lacked contrast and looked 'blah' and very unnatural. I found that I actually liked the non high dynamic range images better. They seemed to pop a bit more.

Most of the high dynamic range pictures ended up in the trash. But I did keep a few like the one immediately below. Up on the mountain the high dynamic range setting did help with defining the clouds and colors in the sky. So maybe the settings are somewhat useful. Just be careful to not over do it!

At the very bottom of this post I added a picture that I removed from the trash because it shows what too much reliance on the high dynamic range setting looks like. Awful! The top photo is basically the same picture but without the high dynamic range filter.

Patrick

The new teepee

On this year's elk hunt we got to try out my new 8 man teepee from Seek Outside. All of my large 'expedition' teepees - the kind I take for archaeology camps or for group outings to our place on Afognak - are getting pretty worn out. So I decided to get a new one. But rather than getting one made out of the usual sil nylon I went for the lightweight dyneema. Dyneema is super strong and light weight, and it does not sag when it gets wet. So you just tighten it up and leave it that way. 

Dyneema is also expensive so no one makes a big tent out of it that I could buy. But I talked to the tent makers at Seek Outside and they agreed to build one custom for me. They tell me I may well have the world's largest tent made out of dyneema. 

What's amazing is that the teepee all up with pole, stakes, bag, and cords only weighs 6.2 pounds. And all six of us can sleep in there with the woodstove. People can stand up and walk around inside it! My old elk hunt tent (also made from dyneema)  weighs 4.6 but only sleeps 4 with the woodstove. You get a lot of room with that extra pound and a half. And I also think that with all the extra guy out points that it will do better in the wind than the last one did. I must say the tent seems HUGE!

In the future this is the tent I'll take on archaeological expeditions and as a cook tent for when we go to Afognak. But it is also light enough to use on our nomadic elk hunts where we traipse across the landscape. 

Patrick

Brooks hard at working making s'mores

Floating camp

 

For most traditional hunters deer and/or elk camp is a fixed spot on the landscape. Usually it is a cabin or wall tent where a group of guys go every year and use it as a base camp. You've all read the stories and seen the pictures in various hunting magazines. Our elk camp floats and moves. It is a 50 seiner. 

It is a little cramped when all 7 of us are on board. But there is beer on tap and we have gourmet meals all frozen and waiting to cook. The boat gets us to where we want to hunt. Then when we go ashore to hunt it can pick us up at whatever spot chasing the elk has taken us to.

Once on shore we carry a lightweight teepee and woodstove for shelter (more on this in next blog post). But onshore, and in particular when we are making the slog back to the beach carrying an elk, we always know 'don't worry there is beer on the boat'. A reassuring notion indeed!

Patrick